Patterns make big, bold statement in today's lofty spaces

There are signs of bigger things to come. At furniture, fabric and home accessories shows in Paris last year, one theme was evident: the bigger, the better.

It may not work for everyone, but for those whose vision is lofty, there were beefy sofas and chairs with deep seats and ample arms, taller-than-average cabinets and 2-foot glass vases clearly requiring flowers that rise above the rest.

Wallcoverings and fabrics loomed largest of all, with in-your-face patterns that sometimes were reduced to single giant images on plain grounds. Suddenly, mega-scaled patterns are enormously appealing.

Designer Nina Campbell's pomegranate fabric pattern for Osborne & Little is captivating, especially when it dresses the walls. Tendril-like vines are exotic, reminiscent of detail from a Gauguin or Rousseau painting.

Even a matching upholstered sofa doesn't overwhelm, its camel ground subduing exuberant red blooms and apple green leaves. The simplicity of the pattern adds to its sophistication.

Pendulum swings

At the Paris shows, giant spring flowers blossomed across a meadow of bold yellow and white stripes, a refreshing decoration on the walls of fabric manufacturer Pierre Frey's booth. Huge irises and parrot tulips on a white ground stopped traffic, especially when the Manuel Canovas fabric also showed up on chairs that introduce a not-so-secret garden into a room.

A shapely, sensuous sofa was covered in enormous red-on-red roses the size of beach balls. One furniture manufacturer showed off a cupboard against a paper that spotted giant white flowers on a cobalt ground.

It was not something your grandmother might admire, but it still was curiously old-fashioned. To add to the zing, the cabinet's interior was painted a matching cobalt, and white china was displayed within.

Like martinis and big cars, wallcovering waxes and wanes in popularity from time to time. Decorators will forever debate how bare a room's backdrop should be: Paint it or cover it with paper, vinyl or fabric, in a textured or smooth finish or in small, medium or large patterns.

Design moods and styles swing like pendulums, clicking off decades of different tastes and looks. In the 1960s, pop and op art emboldened patterns and influenced clothing and furniture as well as walls. In the '70s, earth tones took over and mini-prints seemed charming, often rendered in teeny flowers, barely there polka dots or geometric forms.

Visual punch

The last two decades have been stuck in the middle, more or less. But the scale seems to be tipping, big time. And the bold patterns are a refreshing break from Minimalistic furnishings, adding weight to the stark interiors often favored by architects.

Miami architect Laurinda Spear is one who does not argue the benefits of wallcovering, especially vinyl, citing its practicality as a cleanable surface. Inspired by a vivid vocabulary of line and form from architectural graphics, Spear recently created a collection of wallcoverings called "Linework" for Wolf Gordon. Among the patterns is Palmrail, an undulating organic design suggestive of a stylized palm frond swaying in a breeze. It is eye-popping in orange, and its punchy scale, along with thick red veining and subtle shading, lend a three-dimensional effect.

Another of Spear's patterns, Wave, is even bigger. The curvy design, which comes in 54-inch widths, shows a lot of teeth--and, in fact, resembles them.

Spear intended to shake things up with her designs. "What's out there is pretty nondescript," says Spear about many of the wallcoverings on the market. "We wanted to do something more graphic, something that offered more design options." Designed for contract use (offices, hotels and commercial and retail spaces), whose industry, like fashion, is often a barometer of things to come in home design, Spear's collection easily crosses over to residential applications.

Wallcovering can be an important design tool and the power of its pattern can greatly affect the mood of a room. Pay attention to what's called the pattern repeat-- that is, the size of the image vertically and horizontally before it appears again. Anything more than 2 feet will make a statement. Those parrot tulips, for example, have a 35-inch vertical repeat.

Giant scale, such as wide stripes, can be expansive. An all-over fusion of a lush botanical print and tapestry look in shades of green can be engaging on four walls, like being enveloped by an exotic forest.

Spear says bold patterns such as hers may indeed become a focal point in a room, but there are caveats. Spear suggests covering one plane as an accent wall in lieu of artwork.

Good mates

Some designers are not uncomfortable surrounding themselves with mega-sizes, even marrying them to other patterns.